Sr. Mary Teresitta (Evelyn Rose) Dams of Detroit, age 99, religious 80 years, was called to the Lord Sept. 24 in St. Joseph Care Center, Livonia.

Sr. Mary Teresitta, the former Evelyn Dams, was born to Julius and Martha (Rogman) Dams on Sept. 19, 1914, and baptized the next day at St. Casimir Church, Detroit. The ninth of 11 children, Evelyn had five brothers (Theodore, Leonard, Jerome, Alexander and Anthony), and five sisters (Cecilia, Helen, Lucille, Margaret and Rita). Her older sister, Lucille, joined the Felician Congregation in 1925 and was known as Sr. Mary Celeste. All preceded her in death.

Following one year of high school at St. Casimir, in 1930 she transferred to the Seminary of the Felician Sisters at St. Aubin and Canfield in southeast Detroit. She was accepted as a postulant on June 3, 1933.   The following year, invested with the habit, she received the name Sr. Mary Teresitta. She pronounced first public profession of temporary vows on Aug. 8, 1935, and public profession of perpetual vows on Aug. 15, 1941.

Sr. Dams earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Mary Manse College in Toledo, and Michigan State Elementary Permanent Certification. For the next 72 years she taught children from kindergarten to fifth grade at schools in Michigan, Ohio and Indiana: St. Florian and Queen of Apostles, Hamtramck; St. Louis the King, St. Stanislaus and St. Cunegunda, Detroit; Holy Rosary, Saginaw; St. Joseph and St. Stanislaus, Jackson; St. Michael, Livonia; Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, Wyandotte; St. Thecla, Clinton Township; St. Anthony, St. Stanislaus, and St. Adalbert, Toledo, Ohio; St. Adalbert, South Bend, Ind.

Summer months were never idle as Sr. Dams provided care for the nursery children at Guardian Angel Camp in Holly, an orphanage conducted by the Felician Sisters. And in the parishes where she taught or tutored, Sr. Dams served as a sacristan for more than 50 years.

In 2008, Sr. Dams celebrated a true diamond jubilee — 75 years in the Lord’s service — and in 2013 was one of three who celebrated 80 years in religious life.

Sr. Dams is survived by nieces and nephews and grandnieces and grandnephews.

On Sept. 27, Fr. John Child celebrated the Mass of Resurrection in the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary Chapel, central convent of the Felician Sisters, Livonia. Burial was in Holy Sepulchre Cemetery, Southfield.